Stasis Field

A Stasis Field is a name for both an Imperial technological device that suspends the flow of time in a confined area and the effect it causes. This technology is essentially a time-warp generator whose design dates back to Mankind's Dark Age of Technology. Through an unknown means, Stasis Field Generators create quantum breaks in the normal flow of space-time by manipulating gravitons to alter the relativistic flow of time within their area of effect, greatly slowing the progress of causality until the passage of time is undetectable within the field to an outside observer.

The closer one is to the centre of the Stasis Field, the slower time appears to move; a single moment can take so long to play out inside a Stasis Field that it appears frozen to observers outside the affected area. Because the contents of a Stasis Field are divorced from the normal passage of time, it is effectively impossible to alter the conditions inside of the field in any way. This makes whatever is caught in the area of effect almost completely frozen and unable to be harmed from the outside.

Stasis Fields are normally used to contain people and objects in effectively unchanging conditions, for various reasons. Possibly the most famous Stasis Field in history is the one which enclosed the body of the UltramarinesPrimarchRoboute Guilliman, who was interred in a Stasis Field just before the moment of his death at the Battle of Thessala in 121.M31. Guilliman's body was returned to his homeworld of Macragge to the Temple of Correction where he became a centre of adoration by Imperial Cult pilgrims who came from around the galaxy to pay homage to the Primarch for more than 10,000 Terran years. Some even said that his wounds were miraculously healing within the Stasis Field, even though this is physically impossible. Of course, after Guilliman was resurrected during the events of the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the stasis field once present has been deactivated.

Notable Stasis Field Devices

Locke-Pattern Stasis Pod - While fabulously rare, the stasis pods produced by the Forge World of Locke are exceedingly well-crafted. Each will preserve one humanoid-sized item in a state of unchanging time for as long as power can be maintained. Though used infrequently given the more widely-available nature of saviour systems, Stasis Pods are ideal for containing dangerous xenos or animal life during transport without the risk of escape or damage. Rogue Traders who specialise in beast hunts may have many dozens of Stasis Pods lining their cargo holds, containing everything from the nightmare creatures of Burnscour to savage Genestealers stolen from drifting Space Hulks.

Null Box - A Null Box is a portable stasis field generator that is used for preserving or safely containing a vital sample or woeful artefact. Null Boxes usually take the shape of small armoured boxes, although some go right up to the size of a large chest or sarcophagus. Inside is a projected Stasis Field, in which all time and motion halts and whatever is trapped inside is effectively frozen and removed from any interaction with reality -- essentially contained in a psychic dead zone. True relics of the Dark Age of Technology, most Null Boxes are extraordinarily resilient and tough (almost supernaturally so, which may be the result of the time-control field within) and once active require no further power unless deactivated and turned on again. For obvious reasons the control mechanisms of most Null Boxes are often hidden and heavily encrypted. Unless breached with enormous force or simply turned off by someone able to do so, a Null Box and its contents can out-sit eternity if needs be.